My understanding is that the Fujitsu scanners don’t play nicely with DoxCycle due to not being Twain compliant.I have Fujitsu scanners and I don’t really want to replace them just to make DoxCycle happy. I am trying to determine if there is still value in using DoxCycle in this situation.
Anyone using a Fujitsu Scanner with doxcyle? Can you give me any feedback?
Thanks
Michelle
The answer to your question is “it depends”
The only Fujitsu Scanners that are not Twain compatible based on my understanding are “Scansnaps” will cause you to use the alternate workflow.
I have Fujitsu Scansnaps in my office in addition to Fujitsu Fi-6130 Twain scanners. We use all of the scanners with Taxcycle; however, the people with the Scansnaps have a different import method. this is all setup in the
See the following:
If you have some twain compatible scanners, I would recommend that the individuals who scan most of the T1 documents should get them; however, in the long run it does not really matter.
For instance, I have a low level staff that scans the documents and does the first check of the data, I gave that person the twain compatible scanner to avoid the duplication of the files.
If you are using scan snaps, make sure everyone has a different “monitor” directory to scan to and where taxcycle “moves to” the file after import so you do not get any cross contamination of files. This is all setup on the individuals computer in the options
BTW, you seem to be unhappy with your decision to switch to Taxcycle and get the impression from your posts that you are trying to find faults in Taxcycle to support your disappointment in your decision I understand that there is a learning curve and things run differently than Profile; however, I think you should take a step back and give it a chance.
I was a user of Profile from 1997 until I officially dropped the program last year to move completely to Taxcycle. Are there things I would like to see work differently, yes there is. The program is still evolving and based on the few times I still need to go back and prepare a old return in Profile, Taxcycle is the better program in many ways. Just the filing of Tslips in taxcycle compared to profile makes me happy I switched.
The areas that profile may handle things better than Profile (like the one page T1 planner) will eventually not be issues because I suspect that Taxcycle will add a one page planner like profile but make it better and more useful. We may have to wait for it but it will come. At least with taxcycle, you will have a chance that your request will be implemented; however, at Profile, you have a snowballs chance in hell that they will implement a user request.
I use a Fujitsu ScanSnap and have had no problems once I followed the instructions in the article James has provided the link for.
I use both Scansnap and twain compatibles. For the straight forward returns, Scansnaps are workable. I wouldn’t go out a purchase new equipment until I’ve tried the Scansnaps. You probably will be pleasantly surprised.
I also use the flat bed scanner of my printer when I’m in the US. I have had to use it with Doxcycle and was surprised. It is slow but convenience and I didn’t have to buy new equipment. This isn’t recommended but in a pinch it will do.
Good luck
Gail C-B
Thanks. The feedback has been useful. Now I just have to decide if I want to use DoxCycle at all since CRA has expanded what gets downloaded automatically.
I have always scanned everything in, just to a regular PDF. Still not sure what the advantage would be to use DoxCycle if I am not using the OCR portion but using the CRA Autofill my return.
What are others planning to do? Use DoxCycle and CRA’s autofill feature, or just CRA or just DoxCycle. There are just too many options now.
Likely continue to use Doxcycle to prepare the return. It contains more information than just slips in respect to the preparation of the returns. I will use the download to from CRA to check the balances that were entered from the staff on review. Furthermore, the download for T3 slips may not be very helpful since the client will get one slip with several funds consolidated and CRA get several slips so unless something changes with CRAs system, we will need a reconciliation of sorts for the T3 slips.
One last thing, the CRA download is only a point of time and still can miss slips. I have also seen times that CRA has the slip on their system twice so you cannot rely on the slip download exclusively.
I have used Scansnaps exclusively right from the start, and plan to continue using them. I will also continue to use Doxcycle, also as the way I use it it forms my complete client file for the year.
For those interested Fujitsu does also have twain compliant scanners. I had a Scan Snap and a Kodak. The Kodak I wasn’t to fond of so I purchased a Fujitsu FI-7160 for the desk of my assistant and it was so fast and jam free I upgraded to one for myself also. Pricier but in my opinion well worth it. It still has what they call a Scan Snap mode as well.
I have waffled back and forth between DoxCycle and just scanning to a PDF file. To be honest, after a couple years using DoxCycle, I am still on the fence about it. The advantages of DoxCycle, from my perspective, are: 1) it creates a standard bookmarked file to more easily organize and find slips, 2) it`s fairly easy to organize slips by dragging and dropping, 3) you can now easily create your own categories/bookmarks, and 4) you can easily print a copy of the T1 to the DoxCycle file. The fact that the program only recognizes some slips makes it difficult for me to commit to use it to enter data in T1 files.
I find the most recent Adobe version easy to organize (via drag and drop) pages. Adobe has easier to use annotation and a wider selection of annotations. I can create bookmarks fairly easily in Adobe. The problem is that I have to create the bookmarks in each new file. It is also easy to drag files into an existing PDF file (which you can do in DoxCycle as well).
I keep renewing my DoxCycle subscription because each year there are improvements in the program and one of these years I will find the improvements worthy of using it for most of my T1 files.
DoxCycle is being touted and used by many as a “working paper file” for T1 returns. If that was the case, perhaps one of the features that should be added to the program is a linking annotation where you can link items on the T1 schedules to the various slips and/or working papers in the DoxCycle file. Caseware and Tic Tie Calculate have this feature. I don’t use DoxCycle enough as a working paper file to know if that’s a useful feature or not.
